Educaro: The international education transfer market; Field Study to assess the Indian readiness for learning a new language to pursue higher studies in Germany

Abstract

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics sheds light on the increasing demand for higher education in the developing countries. Student mobility increases substantially and thereby increases the speed of globalization. For Indian students the main destination is the US with 112,714 students in 2016. After that, Australia followed with 36,892 students. The UK became the study location for 19,604 Indian students last year. New Zealand ranked fourth with 15,087 students in 2016 and Canada ranked fifth with 13,626 students that pursued higher studies at their respective universities. Over 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, the total number of Indian students going abroad for studies increased from 145,574 in 2006 to 255,030 in 2016, demonstrating an increase of over 70%. Chanda and Mukherjee (2012) from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore argue that “an important reason for many Indians choosing to study abroad is the lack of good institutions in India and growing competition for limited seats amongst the existing institutes. Very few universities in India provide good quality education and thus the challenge of securing admission in them becomes more daunting each year”. This trend shows the significance of the perceptual recognition of accepting studies abroad as a career accelerator. A key motive is in fact the opportunity to work abroad. If asked, nearly all students aiming for higher studies abroad do so to have the chance of finding a fulfilling job, preferably in the technical field. Over the course of the last months, the attractiveness of study destinations has shifted. The 2016 presidential election in the United States made Donald Trump president, who severely intensified immigration laws and the opportunity for foreign students to work there. The fact that it is a lottery system if a permanent visa is granted sheds very questionable light on anyone’s chances for a predictable future in the US, even after having spent significant funds on oftentimes mediocre education. Moreover, the decision of the population of the United Kingdom to leave the EU made it quite impossible for foreign students to get a work permit after graduation. While it is true that historically many Indians found refuge in the UK as migrant workers and thus heavily influence the choice of their remaining family in India towards the UK, new regulations will force a shift in mind set. For newcomers to Europe who still want to remain close to their relatives in the UK, western European countries are the best opportunity they have. In the course of these macro-economic events, Germany became an ever increasing study destination for Indian students. Germany has very accepting immigration laws. A meeting with the Bengaluru Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Mrs. Margit HellwigBötte revealed that 97% of student visa applications from Indian students go on to be accepted. Over the past couple of years, the consulate saw peak growth rates of up to 300% on a monthly year-to-year basis and an average compound growth rate of 15- 20% over the course of 3 years. The peaks in monthly year-to-year comparison can be directly attributed to students applying for national visas right after their graduation in India. The Gross Domestic Product of Germany makes annually losses of 5 trillion USD by not being able to fill relevant positions in the market as over 5 million specialist positions are left unfilled. The country has great demand for skilled workers that the education system with its own students can simply not satisfy. Mercedes-Benz for example was only able to satisfy new S-class orders from the UAE to an extend of 10%, missing out on 90% of revenue in their luxury segment in the region. Concerning the premium segment, Mercedes had to shift production for North America to South Africa due to a lack of workers in Germany. As a result, German companies and especially the HR departments are very open to recruit from abroad or even better hire foreign students who studied at German universities. The ideal profile most of the German companies are looking for is a technical-driven individual with an interdisciplinary mind-set and an intercultural perspective. The typical Indian student clearly suits this profile and has great opportunities to find a job after finishing postgraduate studies at a German university. In sum, an environmental analysis positions Germany extremely favourably as a study and work destination. First, the political and regulatory as well as the economic forces are extremely favourable. Second, the competitive forces for jobs are relatively low as well. Only the sociocultural forces are quite high due to the importance of the German language in the Country. Due to the lack of successful integration, more than 40% of international undergraduate students and more than 10% of international postgraduate students do not finish their studies and return back home without a degree. The main reason is the inability to communicate in the German language and breaking the mental barrier to successfully meet local people and communicate in the local language. Even the top-prospects aiming for the so called TU9 universities, which are the best technical universities in Germany, finding a job is difficult when the program is fully taught in English and little to no German skills are observable during a job interview. In the mission to educate the student in India on the importance of the German language and make them apply for German-taught programs, a broad initiative has been launched by the German government to create awareness for the importance of the German language and Germany as a study and work destination altogether.